of the political ad who is answering the phone at 3 a.m."? >> and from will, "everything this day and age is politicized." "respect the family's wishes, even if you can't respect each other." facebook.com/carol cnn. thank you for your responses and thank you for joining me this morning. i'm carol costello. we continue now with ashleigh b banfield. >> thank you, carol.

let's bring in paul steinhauser, who is in hampstead, new york, the site of the second presidential debate. the numbers start today, a fresh new week. what do they tell us? >> the horse race, right? this is a brand new cnn poll. there have been seven surveys since that first presidential debate. we average them all together and there you go. there's about as close can you get. 47% likely voters for the president, 47% supporting mitt romney. you look at new national polls that have come out in the last day and you see other numbers behind the numbers. mitt romney's favorable rating seems to be rising a little bit. that's very important as well. the battle for the white house is not a national battle. it's a race for the states and their electoral votes. if you look at the states polls, it's pretty tight as well in the states. >> they say they don't

necessarily pay attention to all the polls. they say they do their internal polls but my spidey senses say they look at all the polls, those included. do the polls make a difference on what they're doing today for tomorrow? >> you know, maybe not make a difference but they realize so much is at stake at tomorrow's deba debate. why? because the race is so close. mitt romney has been in boston since yesterday, under lock and key getting ready for the debate, a lot of the same preparations he did for the first debate. he had rave reviews after that first debate the president since saturday has been in williamsburg, virginia. he did go to a local campaign office and handed out some pizza. he he realizes he has a lot at stake because of his first poor performance in his first debate.

>> he knew when he walked off that stage and he also knew as he watched the tape of that debate that he's got to be more energetic. i think you'll see somebody who is very passionate about the choice that our country faces and putting that choice in front of voters. >> the president can change his style, he can change his tactics, he can't change his record and he can't change his policies. that's what this election is about. >> that's the spin from the campaign. we're here at hofstra university. a very different format from the first debate. the moderator is you're own cnn candy crowley and questions will also come from undecided voters in the audience on international and domestic affairs. >> that's like we like to called the wild card where things can

actually get kind of wild. >> there is a lot riding on the second presidential debate. i don't think you need me to tell you that. as paul just told us, the candidates are spending a lot of time getting reed but they are not the only ones that we're going to be watching tomorrow night. it's that audience that i just alluded to that's going to be playing a pretty big nart this show. athena jones tells us why that's key. >> reporter: round two, president obama and mitt romney face on in their second debate tuesday, a town hall moderated by candy crowley. >> the challenges that they've got to connect not just with the people looking in the television and watching them but to the people on the stage with them, some 80 or so undecided voters has chosen by gallup. it's a much more intimate and up-close adventure with voters.

>> reporter: president obama is under pressure after his last debate got bad reviews. >> one bad debate means losing the battle. two bad debates could be loses the war. >> reporter: romney has enjoyed a post-debate bounce in the polls and a boost of confidence on the campaign trail. >> there's more flrg and passion. people are getting behind this campaign. >> at a town hall without a podium and with audience interaction, the campaign's style and body language can take on added weight. commentators said bill clinton walking toward the audience to answer a question about the

recession highlighted his ability to connect with the voters. >> can we focus on the issues and not the personalities and the mud? >> reporter: analysts say the format could be good for the president. >> he will absolutely be able to draw from that energy, from the energy of the public and the crowd. >> reporter: as for romney. >> one of his big challenges during this entire campaign has been not being aible to connect with the common man and woman and child. he's got to be able to come across as corrennecting, as genuine, as caring. >> the stakes couldn't be higher. athena jones, cnn, washington. >> you can see the second presidential debate live right here on cnn. it will be moderated by our own candy crowley. cnn's special coverage starts at 7:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow night.

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has just arrived in england for medical treatment. you're looking at pictures of her plane arriving. the reason this is such a critical story is she was shot by taliban men who boarded her school bus. she had been defending the rights of girls to simply go to school. she left on a flight this morning bound for england. dan rivers is now outside of that hospital. when i say better medical care, there is excellent medical care in pakistan. why is it going to be better where she's arriving in birmingham? >> reporter: i think just because they've got the level of expertise that they can provide long-term care that they wouldn't be able to provide in pakistan for an extended period of months. this is a center that

specializes in trauma and particularly in treating soldiers who are shot and injured in afghanistan, for example. this is where the royal center is based, they have a lot of soldiers flown here for afghanistan. they're used to dealing with head trauma, gunshot wounds and with the logistics of getting people and transferring them to the airport to the hospital. it was a good idea to bring her here. coincidentally some doctors from this hospital happened to be islamabad. that was another link to this particular hospital. the plane you've seen the pictures of that has landed at birmingham airport provided by the united arab emirates, a special ambulance, if you like, equipped with all the necessary equipment on board to make sure she's okay. she's in a sort of medically induced coma and has remained

unconscious since the shooting. so they obviously have to be very careful in the way they're transporting her and so on. a little bit delayed that flight. we expect her to be here hopefully within the hour. >> dan, if you would, some of the updates out of pakistan about her condition have been a bit confusing. we had heard just stable progress and then we'd heard other varying accounts. what exactly is her condition and what is her prognosis? can she ever return to the way she was? has she potentially got any permanent brain damage? >> reporter: i think that's exactly what they're hoping to ascertain when she arrives here. the first thing that will happen will be a full medical assessment to the damage to her brain and what kind of reconstructive surgery will be needed to repair her skull and

face. she was shot at point blank range in the head. it's amaze she go survived. the bullet ended up passing through her head and lodged between her shoulder and neck. that bullet has been removed in pakistan. now she'll come here to have an assessment on the damage to her brain. she hasn't been conscious yet so they have no idea of the extent of the brain damage. the good news is she'll be treated among the world's best brain surgeons. this hospital is the very best, it was only built a couple years ago. they have an enormous capacity here, one of the biggest in the world for this kind of trauma. >> just quickly, the cost involved, i saw the private jet and the initial offings of her treatment and the follow up, who will be footing the bill ultimately for the entire process. >> it will be the united arab

emirates. she'll be treated here by nhs, the national health service, a publicly funded hospital. eventually that bill will be passed on to the united arab emirates, who have stepped up on this occasion, who feel this case is so important and symbolic for women's rights in pakistan and as a stand against the taliban who have repeatedly threatened her since way back since she started this blog and criticized the closing of girls school right back in 2007. eventually the taliban were kicked out of the area in 2009 and she sort of went on to become a kind of almost a spokeswoman for women's rights in that area and for children and then last tuesday was so brutally shot. >> and these men who decided to pick off school children on a bus have vowed that if she

survives this, she withey will k to end her mission. let us know if things develop. >> i want to take you to syria where an international envoy has arrived, desperate to find any solution. this is a mosque in aleppo, considered extraordinarily important. it caught fire during a fierce gun battle between government and rebel troops. just weeks ago a fire was set in aleppo's medieval markets as well. and all flights operated by syrian arab airlines, if you didn't think they were, they were not but now they are banned from european union airports. ede prepared for the careers of our new economy. by 2025 we could have 20 million jobs without enough college graduates to fill them.

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if i'm president, i will create -- help create 12 million new jobs in this country with rising incomes. >> this country created over half a million manufacturing jobs in the past two and a half year. we can create a million in the

next four and a half yooeears. >> jobs, jobs, jobs seems to be all anybody wants to talk about, both sides saying they have the answer on how to bring down unemployment. mitt romney saying president obama hasn't done anything about it or at least not fast enough. and president obama says mitt romney's plan is, quoting joe biden, malarkey. with us, a senior partner and managing director of the boston consulting group. you and i talked two weeks ago about how to get the jobs home. now i want to talk about if the jobs do come home, do we have skilled enough people here? i keep hearing we're not skilled up in here. what's the real story about our

skill level and whether we can fill those jobs? >> there's a lot of talk about a skills gap. we can never have too many skills. let's just look at some of the facts. we are 33% more productive than japan and 25% more productive than germany. and that's a big advantage for the u.s. and over the last 40 years, the u.s. has produced two and a half times as much in terms of manufacturing value added as we did with 30% less workers. >> so it's not true? we don't have the skills issue i keep hearing, the skills gap problem that is a big crisis? >> we've looked at the basics and we have a less than 1% gap in terms of total unemployment and 8% gap in very high skilled jobs. we don't need to bring a lot of workers in. >> we're just popping this up on our screen right now. the labor gap is not nationwide

but it's localized. what does that mean? >> there's a few places where the skills gap is severe. places like baton rouge. miami is another city. there are five, six cities where we have fairly substantial skills gap. for the most part the country does not have a skills gap. >> what about the fact that we have an aging baby boomer population and as they jump out of the workforce, do we have a problem coming out of the pike or leaving the pike? >> that's a big problem. we are basically facing a very major skills shortage. our average age of a manufacturing worker that's highly school is 5 -- highly skilled is 56 years old. we haven't put in the program to make sure when those people finally retire that we have the workers to replace them. we believe there may be a gap of

900,000 by the end of the decade. >> have you met with the department of labor? you have shared these studies? i know that you met with the obama administration on repatriation but what about this material? are they looking carefully at this and stay we go have to do something about this? >> as a courtesy we did share this with the department of labor. i think their views are, and i don't speak for them in any way, shape or form, but their views are this is pretty much in the right direction. they've been doing some things to deal with, this building advanced manufacturing centers. they have given out a set of $10 million, $20 million grants to create manufacturing for others. there's a whole bunch of jobs training program. i don't think the department of labor is falling down on the job. of course the funding may not be there to do a lot of the work. >> so one last question, doesn't have to do with skills so much as numbers. our christine romans puts up a graphic saying here are the trends and jobless rate, but is it enough?

are we still in crisis mode ors could the trend to you and your group -- the democrats say we're doing better, we're on our way, republicans say not fast enough. what is it in your estimation? >> is it wasn't that long ago we were look at a depression in our country. the fundamentals are that there are some good signs in the country that are very strong right now. the housing market, which was basically almost zero, housing prices on the rise, home builders are starting to build, we're seeing increases in exports from the u.s. there are some good things for the u.s. on the other hand, there are some things that could slow our economy down, the crisis in europe with the euro and other factors, including slowdowns in china that could fundamentally make this a little bit more difficult than we'd want. >> well, you're an important guy because this is whether everybody's talking about right now. certainly the economy and jobs seems to be issue number one for

voters. 22 days away. >> thanks so much. good to see you. appreciate it. >> chwe have christine romans coming up. she'll have some numbers with regard to housing and what it means in a moment. do you churn your own butter too? what? this is going to give you a head start on your dinner. that seems easier sure does who are you? [ female announcer ] new progresso recipe starters. five delicious cooking sauces you combine with fresh ingredients to make amazing home-cooked meals. ♪ ambiance [ female announcer ] new progresso recipe starters. your head-start to home cooked. five days later, i had a massive heart attack. bayer aspirin was the first thing the emts gave me. now, i'm on a bayer aspirin regimen. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. [ woman ] learn from my story. [ male announcer ] how do you make 70,000 trades a second...

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he just may be among the most daring and greatest explorers of our time. we're talking about a real pioneer here. we're talking about felix baumgartner. >> i'm going home now. >> whoa. that is just way awesome. that was one small step and look at it. that man is doing what no man

has ever done before and there was absolutely no guarantee that he was going to survive this. in fact, the odds were really against him and he still did it. there were so many unknowns about this space jump, what space would do to the human body if just one little thing went wrong. scientists were unable to answer if he could even survive the mock speeds he was going to travel at. take a good look at history unfolding. felix sits among the giants, men and women who have defied death, redefined our knowledge of the human body and the world we live in and he survived it. and there it is. if this is the only part you saw, this is just the tip of the iceberg, a perfect landing. as the story goes, the rest is

history. chad meyers joins us now. i can see with you your giant vat of popcorn in front of the television set. >> i sat right here. >> for anybody who is watching, they hear red bull and they think this is an evel kinevel kind of thing. >> no one knew that a man could fall from space, literally hit 833 miles per hour and then hit the atmosphere below, slow down,

survive it and land literally -- watch this, watch this -- he hit the ground, as we say, running. we kneat this point he was completely fine. he knew he was in trouble. at one point he was in the big spin, couldn't get out of it, didn't know what to do finally fought that spin. as you spin around, all the blood wants to go to your head or feet. all of a sudden you can get too much pressure, the exact opposite of what fighter pilots get into when they're pulling positive g and all the blood wants to get out of their ahead. this is the opposite of what felix was feeling yesterday. he did not break the free fall time record because he went so

fast. he pulled the chute at about 7,500 feet. the suit will be used, from my opinion, for space tourists. you're going to go 7,500 miles into space and if something goes completely wrong, felix baumgartner may have saved that person's life because of the technology. >> we all covered the space shuttle columbia disaster. if we knew more about suborbital bailouts, do you think what felix has done might have saved their lives as the space shuttle disintegrated as it came ba into orbit? >> yes. we don't know what happened to the capsule on columbia challenger but twhahat's what t proves, if the capsule it in

fact and they can get out, they can get back out to earth alive. >> i want people to know this was less of a stunt than it was magic for humanity. chad, i knew you'd be the guy, space geek. felix baumgartner says he plans to retire from the death defying business and wants to land a job as a helicopter pilot and do some rescues. something tells us after seeing this he ain't going to have any problem finding a job. a desktop in zurich... and a telepresence room in brazil. the secure cloud helped us get some numbers from my assistant's pc in new york. and before i reached the top, the board meeting became a congrats we sold the company party. wait til my wife's phone hears about this. [ cellphone vibrating ] [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center, working together has never worked so well.

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debate night is just a day away. do you remember before the first debate how everyone was talking about two things, a, how poorly their candidate was going to do, that's the expectations game and, b, how the debate really didn't matter? oh, we all saw how that turned out. mitt romney has been on a roll since his strong debate

performance and barack obama not quite so much. now we have debate number two coming up and the pressure is already on. our wonderful wolf blitzer joins uses he does every day. wolf, you've had a chance to sit through dozens and dozens of these. we know incumbents don't particularly perform well in the first debate. is there a template for the second debate? do we have some history to show us what they need to do, what they often do and how this works out for them? >> in the first debate when he was an ibt, ronald reagan challenged by walter mondale, did not do well. he did much better in the second debate and went on to win reelection decisively in 1984. the challenge for president obama this time, he didn't do well the first time, romney did very well, will be for him to come back in the second date dee bait wish is a town hall format. it's a little more complicated because undecided voters will stand up and ask a question.

so the room is a little bit different, the atmosphere is a little bit different. we'll see if the president comes through this time and republic spo -- responds, and answers passionately and for the righ-- forthrightly. >> no one has the control over the audience and what the audience members will ask, correct? >> well, there is a format that they've announced. our own candy crowley is the moderator. i checked to see because there's been some confusion over the past 24, 48 hours of what that format is. when they announced this second debate at the end of july, the presidential debate commission put it clearly what the format for this second presidential debate, the town hall format would be. "the second presidential debate will take the form of a town

meeting in which citizens will ask questions of of the candidates on foreign and domestic issues, candidates each will have two minutes to respond and an additional minute for the moderator to facilitate a discussion." so there is a format agreed to by the presidential debate commission going into the second presidential debate. >> so mark mckinnon, an adviser to john mccain said something to our soledad o'brien. >> there are going to be real questions asking questions that are a little off beat, which i think is good for the president. he has to look like the happier,

look engaged and be empathetic with the audience. he's good at that sort of thing. the question for romney is can he engage and being empathetic with the audience. >> does mark make a point? we know president obama is great with people. much like bill clinton was great in this venue, walked right up to the audience and locked gaze and answered questions fairly well. having seen what mitt romney has been able to do on the campaign that he can engage in the same way? >> let me start off with the assumption that bill clinton is unique in that sense. he feels your pain, he's a unique politician. he does these town hall meetings and i covered him for eight years when he was president d the lead up to his winning back in '92. he's way, way beyond mitt romney and president obama in a setting like this. but having said that, president obama and mitt romney are strong it this setting but they're not

perfect or great. the president has to show that he wants throb, he's engaged, he's not bored. some of those aspects apparently he failed on during the first presidential debate and i think mitt romney has got to show that he can relate to these average folks as well, which has been a problem occasionally for him in the course of all of these town hall meetings he's done. having said all that, boat of these gots to this level because they're good, they're strong. you doesn't get to be the president of the united states or the republican presidential nominee unless you're really, really good. they beat a lot of other opponents in the process so i'm looking forward to it tomorrow night. i think they're both going to be good. >> i always like the town hall best. i think it the best. again, because the audience plays such a big part, you never know what you're going to get. wolf blitzer, as always, thank you. i appreciate it. >> thank you. >> you can watch the second

presidential debate live. it will also stream live on cnn.com. >> former senator arlen specter is a name you'll hear a lot today. he's be remembered for his dedication to the country. he died after a long battle with cancer. he was first elected to the senate as a republicans in 1980 but he finished his career there as a democrat. he's being praised by both sides for his long and principled career. it's come from so many to remember him as just a fighter, pure and simple a fighter. a public service will be held team in penn valley, pennsylvania. he was 82 years old. there are a lot of warning lights

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if you have at one time in your life gone to the doctor and been given a shot and just assumed that that shot was safe, then this sorry is ftory is for. contaminated pain injections have caused 205 people to fall ill, 15 of them dieing from

fungal meningitis. there are real people behind those numbers, real people like you, like me and the person you're about to meet. they went in for medical help and ended up dead. elizabeth cohen spent time with the family of one man. >> lord give us the strength to go forward. >> reporter: something's missing in the lovelace house. fiv five generations gather in mourning. eddie lovelace, a circuit court judge in albany, kentucky, dead, a suspected case of fungal, meningitis. >> he was the center of our universe as a family. >> judge eddie lovelace was a healthy 78-year-old man, worked

full time, walked three mimes a a day when in the middle of september he started feeling dizzy and slurring his speech. >> he was in the kitchen and he said my legs don't work right, there's something wrong with my legs. >> reporter: lovelace had had a stroke. he died five days after being admitted to the hospital. >> it was a nightmare. >> reporter: later the doctors put it together. lovelace had been in a car accident and received three injections with steroids for back and neck pain. the medicine he received was likely made by the new england compounding center. after his death, these injections were recalled due to contamination that can cause strokes. now all the family can do is remember the devoted public servant, the grandfather who let his granddaughters play with barbies behind the bench while they were little while he heard court cases. >> he was the most intelligent man i've ever met. his memory was uncanny.

if you needed advice, irregardless of what the subject was, you could always take his and trust it. >> reporter: his family looks back and asks why. >> the decisions to save money, the decisions not to regulate drugs, decisions not to oversee these facilities, those decisions affect lives every day. if different decisions had been made at certain points along the way, my father would be here today. >> your father just went in for really a very routine -- >> he did. and he went there for pain relief. he went there to get help. >> and he got -- >> death. >> elizabeth cohen joins me now live. you know, watching that story and listening to judge lovelace's son, it made me wonder if that recall is also being overseen. if we know all those bad drugs have effectively been recalled,

are not longer out, there notwithstanding the regulation issue still standing out there. >> reporter: from what i've been told from experts who are steeped in this, it has been recalled. at first they recalled the tainted lots and now they have recalled everything. the hospitals are responsible for getting it off the shelves. one would think because there's such a legal liability here that they certainly pulled it. >> elizabeth cohen, it really bring it is to light. it's not just a bunch of statistics. it is just horrible. elizabeth cohen, thank you. appreciate it. and for more on fungal meningitis and to see a complete list of the hospitals that may have received that contaminated drug, visit cnn.com/empoweredpatient. ♪ oh wow, that is mmm...

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you don't need me to tell you that when you spend money, you help drive the economy. two-thirds of the economy is drivening by spending. we have new retail numbers released today for september. they look pretty good, and this is important because if it drives the economy, and we're feeling good about spending again, those trends that are your friend, you always say, will show we're in a good way right now. >> i like to look within these numbers to see what we're spending our money on and what that says about what kind of consumer we are. it's so interesting. retail sales up 1.1% in september. what we were spending more money on, we were spending more money on consumer electronics. you can see the release of the

iphone in some of the retail numbers because people are spending money on consumer electronics. we were spend it on food and gas. >> okay. that worries me. when you say food and gas, that doesn't make me feel like we're confident. we feel like we're stuck. >> it's not necessarily because you wanted to spend more, but you were spending more on two things that are very important. we still had 1% growth in spending because we're buying things like consumer electronics and things like cars. that was another thing that drove this number. some pretty good stuff in here overall. department stores -- it's not like we're running out to department stores. it's really consumer technology, cars. a lot of incentive forces cars out there right now. then food and gas. it's also curious, too, because today you have a couple of the toy maker stocks that are down sharply because goldman saks says we're spending less money on tioys and games, so we're being picky. we're spend it on food, cars, gasoline, and consumer electronics. >> why are we -- i have two kids, so i'm buckinghat trend without question. why are we spending less money on toys and games?

are we spend morgue on our ipads or something? >> maybe. maybe that's what it is. it's because you are spending -- you are buying it for the gadgets, not necessarily the board games. >> talk to me about housing. we get dribs and drabs of data all the time, and some pieces of data are far more key in terms of indications than others. >> so we've seen consumer sentiment doing better. we had a gauge of that on friday that was better. in part, probably because feeling are better about their housing situation. we've seen home prices going up, home sales going up, home construction going up. this is what it feels like at the bottom. i mean, some of you are telling me, oh, i'm still getting killed. my house is worth less, and my taxes are higher. that's me. probably you too. >> yep. >> you know, the housing market has stopped falling. it's a very bullish forecast for homes, but even if -- >> yeah. >> it's been a lock time since i have been able to even find a forecast like that. >> okay.

so i suppose it begs -- if you are sitting in florida right now or sitting in nevada, you are, christine romans, doom my house, and you can see that we don't follow the national trend. here before you about 25 minutes ago was talking about how locally we have issues with skilled, you know, labor gap. do we also have these local issues with housing still, or do these states that have been drowning have any relief like that? >> there's some relief in sn some spots, an other places it's difficult. if you have cash, the housing market is great for you right now. if you are able to refinance, you have a job and money in the bank, the housing market is your friend right now. there are still parts of a country that are blown out, and the people who are taking advantage are the international investorsnd the investors with cash. those are the people who are -- who have been winning in the housing market recovery, but we're starting to see more real people. by real people we're talking about people living in their house, want to refinance their mortgage, and want to get extra money of month. that number of people is growing every month. >> that is also me. trying to refinance this big

bohemath of a pain in the butt. i say that because everybody -- >> good luck. >> everybody feels that it's hard to get that re-fi deal. it's sitting out there dangling. >> it's so worth it. it's so worth it. >> thank you. nice to see you. back after this. when we got married. i had three kids. and she became the full time mother of three. it was soccer, and ballet, and cheerleading, and baseball. those years were crazy. so, as we go into this next phase, you know, a big part of it for us is that there isn't anything on the schedule. anncr: every president inherits few have faced so many.

four years later... our enemies have been brought to justice. our heroes are coming home. assembly lines are humming again. there are still challenges to meet. children to educate. a middle class to rebuild. but the last thing we should do is turn back now. president obama: i'm barack obama and... i approve this message.

the unemployment rate is now at the lowest level in nearly four years, which means, in part, more of you are getting back into the work force, but once you land the gig, how do you insure that you don't become part of the jobless statistics again? allison is here with the top tip from the new york stock exchange. we all get excited when we land the new job. the secret is making sure you don't burn out maybe and then you're no good to anybody. >> you don't want to rest on your laurels.

if you have a job, your work is just getting started. "fortune magazine" contributor verne harnisch has some great pointers to keep up the good work, and some of this i know is going to seep a little obvious, but it doesn't hurt to give you a nice reminder. this can be as simple as taking time for yourself. go aheadnd plan a weekly dinner date or even just a quick coffee break during your day. verne also recommends stepping back for some perspective. it may be available to take time out to think about how you spend your time and how you can focus on what really matters. another important part of your work life balance is vacation, and it'size to put off a much needed vacation if you don't lock in the date and buy your tickets. the break will definitely reenergize you and help you to focus on your job. you know what, while you're at it, do something unusual. go crazy. there are new seminars that mix work with outdoor activities like hike and kayaking. you know what, it would be a great way to learn some new skills and, hey, why not? have a little fun.